Ecosia: Searching for a Greener World

Can a search engine save the rainforest? Probably not, but this is no time to get all cynical, not when Ecosia.org has just launched. Search engine Ecosia will give most of its income to an environmental protection project run by the World Wide Fund for Nature. It should add up quickly: the company says that every search will save about 2 square meters of rainforest.

Ecosia was founded in Germany by three green-minded friends who thought that search engines should be more eco-friendly. As Christian Koll, one of the founders, says, "Thanks to sponsored links, search engines earn billions every year. Ecosia believes that there is a more eco-friendly way of using these huge profits and that the money should better be used to fight global warming."

The search results actually come from Yahoo and Bing, as do the sponsored ad links. The company has pledged that at least 80 percent of its sponsored link income will go to protect rainforest in Brazil's Amazonas region, so start searching with Ecosia, and click a few ads while you're there.Back to top

Troy Dreier is a technology writer and editor based in Jersey City, NJ. He’s the editor of OnlineVideo.net, senior associate editor for StreamingMedia.com, and a former staff editor for PC Magazine. He’s @tdreier on Twitter.
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